Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting structure for mounting an automotive installation, such as an air conditioning unit, an audio unit or the like, and a method of mounting the same to a vehicle body.
In Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication (kokai) Nos. 57-10945 and 57-39829 etc., there is known a structure for mounting the automotive installation where an air conditioning unit is fixed on a top section and an under section of a dash panel of an automobile, while a heater control unit to control the temperature and operational modes of the air conditioning unit is secured on an instrument panel of the automobile.
In the above-mentioned structure, since the air conditioning unit has been secured to the dash panel and after that, the instrument panel has been fitted to the vehicle body, the heater control unit is assembled in the instrument panel. Therefore, in connecting control cables of the heater control unit to operated parts of the air conditioning unit, a worker has to crouch to get into the underside of the instrument panel for connecting work, thereby getting worse in workability.
Alternatively, since it is necessary to make sure of long surpluses for the control cables in view of the workability, such a countermeasure accompanies an additional process to adjust the lengths of the control cables after connecting, increasing a number of manufacturing processes disadvantageously.
Such a problem also arises in wiring an automotive harness for supplying electricity for electrical installations.
In Japanese Patent Publication (kokai) No. 58-218451 and Japanese Utility Model Publication (kokai) No. 60-171768 etc., there is known a structure for wiring the automotive harness where the automotive harness is fixed to the back of an instrument panel or the back of a cowl box on the top of a dash panel by means of hooking members, such as clamps, clips or the like, while connectors at the end of the harness are secured on a dash side panel and engaged with both connectors at the end of a harness extending from an engine room and connectors at the end of another harness extending from a vehicle body. Note, the former harness extending from the engine room will be referred to "engine-room side harness" while the latter harness extending from the vehicle body will be referred to "vehicle side harness", hereinafter.
In the wiring structure mentioned above, the connectors, which are arranged at the end of the harness on the back of the instrument panel or the cowl box, are fixed on the dash side panel and adapted so as to engage with the other connectors at the ends of the engine-room side harness and the vehicle side harness after assembling the instrument panel to the vehicle body. Therefore, in order to connect the former connectors to the latter connectors, the worker has to crouch to get into the underside of the instrument panel for connecting work, thereby getting worse in workability.
Moreover, since the instrument panel is apt to hide the connection area among the connectors from view, it is difficult to make an inspection of electrical connection among the connectors.